


The Third Child

by fadeoutra



Category: F.E.A.R. (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, Humor, and alma generally prefers to be an eight-year-old, and to fix the ending of F.E.A.R. 3, fettel is still dead, point man still never talks, really it's all just for humor's sake, some light point man/jin in later chapters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-15
Updated: 2017-04-20
Packaged: 2018-10-05 14:58:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 6,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10310804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fadeoutra/pseuds/fadeoutra
Summary: Instead of Fettel cannibalizing Alma or Point Man (re-)killing Fettel, everyone decides to get along and raise the newest child as a family, because what's more important than family? Oh, and Jin helps, too.





	1. Birth

**Author's Note:**

> I am not affiliated in any way with the F.E.A.R. franchise. This is all for shits and giggles.

With the family truly reunited for the very first time, the moment to decide their fates had come. Alma's pregnant belly throbbed with pure psychic energy as she laid upon the floor. Her two sons, both harboring very different intentions, joined her at her side. Her elder son, Point Man, hoped to end the fetus's life and bring peace to the city, whereas her younger son, Paxton Fettel, aimed to consume Alma's body in order to become like a god. Only one of them would make it out alive.

"Or," Fettel suggested a third option, "we allow the baby to live, we don't kill Mother, and we raise the child together like a proper family."

Point Man shrugged and nodded, satisfied with this alternative. He knelt to the floor and assisted his mother in birthing the child. Unable to actually help, Fettel merely leaned over for a peek at the new sibling.

"A sister!" he declared. "I think this will be fun. Don't you agree, Brother?"

Point Man said nothing. Once the baby was born and swaddled in cloth, Alma didn't die or fade away, so that was neat. Instead, she resumed the form she felt most familiar with, that being the appearance of her eight-year-old self clad in a simple red dress. Being a literal walking corpse wasn't going to stop her from doing what she wanted.

"Shall we?" suggested Fettel. "We need to acquire a home for our new sister. I don't think Fairport is very inhabitable anymore."

When Point Man opened the nearest exit door, his frown deepened at the sight of the lingering crimson hell sky. It seemed the Almaverse hadn't yet dissipated.

Fettel pursed his lips. "Mother, could you please put the apocalypse on hold for now? We can't raise your newest child if the world is plunging into chaos."

At his side, Alma glared up at him, and the lights in the room began to flicker. "They deserve to die," she whispered wrathfully.

"I guarantee that everyone involved with Armacham is dead by now, dearest Mother."

Though clearly not satisfied with that answer, Alma extended her hand outward and, in what seemed like an effortless act, the hemorrhaging reality around them suddenly repaired itself. The radio on Point Man's hip crackled with static.

"You did it," came Jin Sun-Kwon's relieved voice. "I don't know what you did, but everything's normal now."

A lightbulb overhead exploded with the force of Alma's anger and she evaporated into ash. Having a third child had apparently done nothing for her maturity. Point Man silently regarded the spot she'd stood in.

"She'll be fine," Fettel assured. "Emotions are difficult for her. She is still a child at heart, after all. Let us go and find a home. I'm certain Mother will follow."


	2. Name

Finding a home turned out to be far less difficult than it probably should have been. Just one city over, in a fairly nice suburban neighborhood, a house was offered for rent, and Point Man managed to strike a deal with the homeowner instantly. As far as the landlord knew, the only occupants would be a middle-aged man with plenty of money saved from years in the military and a tiny infant. He had no way of knowing that two rather malicious ghosts also intended to move in.

"Well, this is cozy." Fettel ambled throughout the rooms, walking through walls, examining the quaint residence with approval.

In the corner of the living room ceiling, Alma roosted.

Luckily the place came pre-furnished, so there was no worry about shopping for furniture. The landlord had even been kind enough to spare an old wooden crib. Point Man gently placed the new baby in that crib, and he watched with quiet wonderment as she slept. Fettel appeared beside him.

"We need to name her, you know," he reminded, and so the elder brother went out to find a book of baby names while the younger brother watched over their new sister. Eventually Alma came crawling down the wall and across the floor to join them. On her tip toes, she peered over the crib's edge.

"My baby," she whispered.

"Yes, Mother. Your family is finally reassembled, after all these years."

Alma reached up to take Fettel's hand. "My babies."

When Point Man returned with a book under his arm, Alma scuttled to the side. It had taken her some time but she'd come to realize that her harmful aura was far too potent for living things to handle. She couldn't hold her first son's hand the way she could her second's. Still, Point Man sat cross-legged as near her as limitations would allow, and he laid the book of baby names out onto the floor. Fettel, content with standing, peered at it from over him.

"What about 'Patricia'?" Fettel offered. "We could have a theme with our names. Point Man, Paxton..." Point Man scrunched his nose and shook his head in rejection as he flipped through the pages.

Alma reached her hand toward the book. After a burst of telekinetic force, the pages fell to the "A" section of names.

Fettel chuckled. "I think Mother wants our sister to be named after her."

Without a word, Alma pressed an index finger onto the page, burning it and leaving a scorch mark next to one of the names. Point Man fanned out the tiny flame.

"Alya?" Fettel read the name aloud. "Similar to 'Alma', but not confusingly so, and pleasant to the ears. I approve."

Point Man nodded along, and it was decided. Alya Wade was the newest addition to the family.


	3. But Can A Ghost Hold a Baby?

Alya had been crying for hours. Point Man stood rocking back and forth with the tiny infant in his arms, however it did nothing to calm her. She'd been fed, burped, and checked for a dirty diaper, and yet her shrill wails continued to fill the air. Fettel materialized before them with obvious discontent in his expression.

"Can't you make her stop?" he demanded, narrowing his eyes at Alya. "I don't even have a physical body anymore and this still makes me want to claw my ears off."

Point Man lifted his gaze to glare at his brother, but said nothing. He truly couldn't think of anything else that might comfort the child.

Walking in through the nearby wall came Alma in her child form, her bloodied feet leaving a trail of footprints behind her. Point Man would have to mop the floor again. Eagerly, Alma held both her arms out toward her elder son and daughter, and Point Man hesitated. His reluctance was understandable when considering all the things he'd witnessed his mother do to people in the past, like liquify them on a molecular level.

"Oh, come now, Brother," said Fettel. "Alya was carried to term even in Mother's current state. It'll be fine."

The mentioned phenomenon was one that still made no sense. By all definition, Alya seemed like a perfectly normal, healthy, living baby. She didn't look like she'd been birthed by a psychic corpse. Logic aside, Point Man agreed that Alma's powerful aura must not be too dangerous for the baby, and he knelt down to place Alya into their mother's arms. Even being that close to her so briefly gave him a headache.

Only seconds later did Alya stop crying, and she stared up at Alma with wonderment in her big blue eyes. Alma didn't smile, but a distinct lightening of her otherwise stifling psychic presence could be felt. Point Man, confused by the shift in atmosphere, raised a brow at Fettel.

"Mother is overjoyed," his brother's ghost explained with a smirk, and Point Man looked back down at Alma. She seemed as grim as ever, even while gently holding the baby in her small arms. Point Man wondered what he was missing.

Fettel, more attuned to Alma's psychic wavelength due to their past synchronicities, could sense her emotions very clearly. "See? I told you it would be fine. Somehow, Alya can withstand our mother's touch." He then hummed in thought. "I wonder if I can touch her, as well."

Being a ghost generally added some difficulty to Fettel's ability to do, well, anything at all. His connection to the physical world had dwindled to mere psychic influence, and while he was indeed a powerful psychic, his power still paled in comparison to Alma's. She had the unparalleled advantage of being a literal walking corpse with the supernatural capacity to exist in any medium of reality she chose, whether it be tangible, spectral, or hallucinogenic, all commanded by her sheer force of will. Fettel couldn't even turn a doorknob.

Yet, when he knelt down and offered his hand to Alya, she grabbed his index finger like it was a toy meant just for her.

"Incredible," Fettel praised. "She can interact with the apparitional plane, and with no negative side effects. I suppose this is what happens when the most powerful psychic ever born mates with another less powerful, but still remarkable psychic." When Alya released her hold on him, he stood once more. "I can't wait to see how she'll develop these abilities."

Immediately Point Man stepped into his brother's field of view and, with furrowed brows, shook his head.

Fettel frowned. "You can't be serious. Of course I'm going to help our dear sister hone her gift."

Again, Point Man shook his head, his scowl intensifying, and Fettel countered with a low growl.

Alma had yet to take her eyes away from her daughter's face, and she paid no mind to her bickering sons. This was the first time she'd ever actually held one of her own children. She knew nothing of motherhood, except that she wanted it, and now she finally had it. So she cherished it by silently walking away from her sons and leaving them to their feud. They weren't good company at the moment, anyway.


	4. Jin's Back

Point Man pushed a metal cart down the aisle of their local Babies"R"Us as he perused colorful arrangements of baby clothing. He'd quickly realized that Alya would need more than just the wrap of cloth he'd brought her home in to wear, and that revelation had brought him here. Other shoppers seemed slightly perturbed by his camo pants, combat boots, tactical belt and gloves, but at least he'd had the good sense to leave his pistol holsters behind. Fettel strolled alongside him while back home Alma presumably continued to stare at Alya as she napped in her crib.

"Everything is so... pastel," Fettel sourly pointed out. Point Man, ignoring him, said nothing, and he placed a light green onesie featuring a frog on the front into his cart. Fettel made a dissatisfied face at it.

This continued for some time, the elder brother dropping various baby shirts, pants, pajamas, bibs, and booties into the shopping cart, and the younger brother making a snide comment about each one. Point Man threw in a couple of tiny baby hats for good measure. Then he moved on to the essentials, like diapers and food, and after that, the toys section.

"We should at least find something educational for her to play with," Fettel insisted, and on this subject Point Man agreed, so he tossed a few different alphabet and number teaching aids into the cart.

When he finally returned to the front to have his items bagged, he suddenly wished he'd bought a car before this. Their home was only a couple of miles away from this shopping center, but this was still a lot of stuff. Point Man could hear Fettel snickering at him while he paid.

Out on the sidewalk, Point Man carried on with several bags in each hand, and Fettel took great pleasure in teasing him for it.  
"I don't know why you thought walking here would be a good idea. Then again, you're not very good at planning ahead, are you?" He chuckled. "I think we can see that from every decision you've made thus far."

It was during times like this that Point Man wished for the "normal" older brother experience, the kind where shoving his little brother into the dirt wouldn't be all that unreasonable. At least the bullet hole in Fettel's forehead served as a permanent reminder of the one time Point Man got to play the role of an older sibling bully.

Before Fettel could continue his ridicule, a woman's voice called out from behind them.

"Hey, you there! Do you need help?" Footfalls approached on the concrete and the woman stepped right through Fettel, earning a pointed glare from him. "I can carry a few of those bags for you if you want--- oh my god, it's you!"

Point Man stared down at the face of Jin Sun-Kwon, a face he hadn't expected to see ever again. From the look of her expression, she'd felt the same way.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, though her shock quickly softened. "I bet it's the same thing I'm doing. I came here to try and move on with my life. You know, get back to normalcy. I just didn't think we'd end up in the same place again."  
Point Man nodded along in understanding.

At their side, Fettel glowered. "Get rid of her," he demanded in a venomous tone. "We don't need her for anything."

Jin, completely lacking in psychic potential, could neither see nor hear Fettel's ghost, rendering his hostility utterly pointless. "Let me grab some of those for you," she offered again, taking a few shopping bags from Point Man. "I didn't know you were so into pastel colors. Oh, wait, these are baby clothes." After a silent pause, Jin looked back up at him, and as she did, her jaw dropped with a sudden realization. "You let Alma's baby live, didn't you?! And you adopted it!"

Point Man nodded with an apologetic shrug.

"At least she's quick on the uptake," Fettel muttered. 

Jin's horror quickly turned to ire and she jabbed a finger into the air at her former squadmate. "You were supposed to destroy it! Who knows how dangerous it could be? You had a mission and you failed!"

Knowing her accusations were ultimately correct, Point Man could only stand and listen as she berated him for it. When she finished, he wordlessly lifted the bags of baby items to remind her of his intentions. Jin sighed.

"You just want to take care of it, I know. But you could still be putting us all in a lot of danger." Somehow, the remorseful look in his eyes made Jin finally relent. "Okay, all right, fine. You can raise it. But," she added, "I'm going to help you do it."

Fettel instantly stepped forward to object. "Absolutely not, Brother! She is not part of the family. She cannot be allowed to intrude!"

Paying his bitter brother no mind, Point Man answered Jin's proposal with a rare smile and an accepting nod. He knew no one in the Wade family possessed any real knowledge of how to care for an infant. They could use all the help they could get.  
Fettel didn't see it the same way. "Idiot! Do you really think Mother will allow this?"

But Point Man and Jin were already leaving him behind on the sidewalk, Jin chatting away about her her new life and Point Man listening attentively. Fettel snarled loudly at them before disappearing in a cloud of ash.


	5. Ghost Moms Can Be Territorial

In the baby's room, Jin peered into the crib and warily eyed the infant. "Alya, huh?" The name had been written like a label onto the crib. "I guess she looks normal," Jin admitted, though her suspicion hadn't waned. "How do we know that she won't... I don't know... turn on us?"

Point Man shrugged as he put the new clothes away.

"Guess we'll just have to hope for the best," Jin sighed. When she reached into the crib to pick Alya up, the lights in the room flickered, making her hesitate. "...Is your electricity okay?"

Again, Point Man shrugged, though his gaze moved to the corner of the room where Alma crouched and seethed inside a smoldering black cloud of hatred, her furious red eyes locked on Jin. This time when Jin attempted to pick Alya up, one of the glass windows cracked.

"Is she doing that?" Jin pointed at Alya, who cooed quietly at her, and Point Man assured her that wasn't the case with a shake of his head. "Maybe it's just the wind," she sarcastically suggested under her breath before finally taking the baby into her arms.

Alma's rage skyrocketed with such intensity that the wallpaper near her began to smoke and curl from the drywall. Point Man's eyes widened ever so slightly, but Jin had already turned her back to the hellish corner.

"This reminds me of when I used to take care of my cousin." Jin, unaware of the incredibly livid ghost hunched behind her, pinched Alya's fat little cheek. "One of my aunts had her baby when I was fifteen. I babysat for her so often that she once joked about how I might as well have been the kid's mom." She lifted a finger and gently tapped Alya's nose. "And now I'm gonna help take care of you and make sure you don't destroy the world someday, isn't that right?"

In that moment, Fettel appeared in the room, returning from wherever he'd previously fucked off to. His expression of displeasure matched Alma's.

"So what if she knows how to care for a child?" he growled at his brother who still pretended that two very angry ghosts weren't in the room. "She isn't family. She never will be."

Alma, crouched low on the balls of her bloodied feet, her hands pressing bright scorch marks into the floor, glared up at Jin through a curtain of dark hair and looked ready to pounce at any second.

Point Man hurriedly took Alya from Jin and gently shoved his former squadmate out of the room.

"Oh. Uh, okay." Albeit with some confusion, Jin headed for the front door. "I guess I'll come by another time. Don't forget what I told you about that lotion recipe for diaper rashes, it really works wonders."

Point Man nodded along while shutting the door once she'd stepped out, desperate to get her safely away.

"That went well," said Fettel from behind him.

Point Man sharply turned to give him a hard scowl.

"Hm?" The younger of the two had the nerve to play innocent. "I'm only acting in the best interests of our sister. She doesn't need anyone outside the family interfering in her life."

Point Man skeptically raised a brow. Fettel's frown deepened.

"Of course we can take care of a child on our own. It doesn't matter that you've only ever known a military lifestyle, or that I was raised in labs by scientists, or that Mother has no real life experience and maintains the emotional capacity of an eight-year-old."

Point Man's brow quirked even higher, and only then did Fettel realize the sheer lunacy of what he'd just said.

"Fine!" Throwing a hand up in defeat, Fettel resentfully surrendered the one-sided argument. "That woman can come by and aid us now and then, but don't expect Mother to be happy with it."


	6. Convincing Alma

Point Man knelt on the floor of Alya's bedroom and faced the ash-ridden corner. In his hand he held a photo, one of Jin striking a rather buoyant pose in her F.E.A.R. combat fatigues, her fingers forming a V in the air, and though he couldn't remember when or where this photo had been taken or how he'd even come to acquire it, he now showed it to his fuming mother. With his eyes he pleaded for Jin to be spared from any paranormal wrath, but Alma didn't seem responsive. She continued to seethe where she stood. Point Man pressed his palms together to stress his plea and she only narrowed her eyes further.

"I told you she wouldn't approve," said Fettel as he appeared by Alma's side. "You're going to have a difficult time changing her mind."

Point Man, responding to his younger brother with a quick glare, moved to stand by Alya's crib. He pointed at Jin's photo, then pointed at Alya, then made a rocking motion with his arms. The force of Alma's subsequent rage caused the very fabric of reality within the room to darken, and Point Man pinched the bridge of his nose to thwart the accompanying migraine.

Fettel sighed. "He doesn't mean this woman seeks to replace you as a mother," he assured Alma. "Rather that she only wants to assist in raising our dear sister. We know you love Alya very, very much," he raised a hand to his heart in a show of exaggerated sentiment, "but none of us know anything about children. Don't you think we could use just a little bit of help?"

Alma turned to look up at him and, for a long time, she stared at her youngest son, her naive mind contemplating what he'd said.

The silence allowed Point Man to ponder the photo in his hand and where it came from. Had Jin slipped it into his vest? He turned it over to see a phone number written on the back.

Eventually the throbbing blackness at the edge of his vision subsided and he looked up to see Alma frowning at him again. She nodded once, approving of Jin's involvement, though the look in her eyes suggested all hell would break loose if anyone did anything she didn't like, and then she disappeared in a cloud of ash.

Fettel smiled, all too smug, as if he'd gained a victory. "You're welcome. Be sure to tell Miss Sun-Kwon that I'm the reason she'll remain alive during her next visit."

Point Man wordlessly offered his middle finger.


	7. Jin Joins The Family

A week later Jin returned to what would now be known as the Wade residence. Dead or alive, Alma was still the parent, and therefore head of the household. 

"So I went searching through old things," Jin began as soon as Point Man opened the front door, "and I found some stuff I used to use for my nephew when I'd babysit him." From her shoulder hung a large bag full of items and, eyeing it, Point Man stepped aside to let her in. She headed for the kitchen table and immediately unpacked.

"Let's see. Some soft sheets for her crib... baby monitors... a humidifier in case she gets sick... a wrap sling... oh, and a stroller!" Jin hurried back to the porch to roll the stroller in. "It's a little old, but it works just fine. I bet you didn't even think to get any of these things, did you?"

In truth, Point Man hadn't, and now he felt nothing but gratitude for Jin's assistance. He left the room to retrieve his sister, whom Alma very reluctantly gave up. The tiny ghost girl had been holding her daughter for hours, even while Point Man bottle fed Alya. It was only with a coaxing look that Alma released the child. When he returned to the kitchen, he passed the baby on to Jin.

"There she is," Jin cooed. "You're a very special little girl, you know that? No one's ever been born the way you were." She shot a grimace in Point Man's direction. "But we're going to try and make your life as normal as possible. You wanna sit in your new wrap?"  
As Jin gently laid Alya down, Fettel materialized in the room, his arms crossed with residual disapproval.

"I suppose she's useful," he admitted rather bitterly as he watched Jin tie the wrap's fabric around herself. "Just don't allow her to start thinking she's part of the family."

Point Man silently offered him a reproachful look.

Another minute passed, and Jin had successfully placed Alya into the wrap, her small body snuggled against Jin's chest.

"Haven't done that in a while," Jin said with a proud smile, "but it's not all that hard to do. Cute, right? I think she likes it."

Alya responded on cue with a noise that could only have been amazement. As soon as Jin looked down to smile at her, Fettel telekinetically sent one of the baby monitors clattering to the floor. Point Man shot a hard glare at his brother, but to his surprise, he himself was the one to receive an accusatory frown from Jin.

"Hey, that could break! Be careful, would you?" Fortunately, Fettel's chuckle couldn't reach her ears. "Look, I'm gonna warm some formula for Alya. Can you keep everything where it should be?" She passed Point Man on her way to the fridge and the look of exasperation she gave him nearly made him wither. Fettel, proud of these results, looked on with a smirk.

While Jin ran a bottle under warm water, Alma suddenly appeared in one of the three chairs surrounding the kitchen table, her crimson stained feet swinging back and forth above the floor. Though her eyes only stared forward, she looked content in spite of Jin's presence.

"Hello, Mother," Fettel greeted. Alma turned her head to look at him, lingered for a moment, then gazed forward again. It was her way of saying hello.

Jin finished preparing the formula and joined Alma without realizing the little girl sat right across from her. "Here you go," she murmured, holding the bottle up, and Alya eagerly drank from it.

It was during this moment Point Man paused to take in the view. At the table sat his only friend, who nurtured his newly born sister, and his childlike mother watched with careful eyes while his ghostly brother lounged against the counter behind them. This was his family. He grabbed a cloth and sat down in the remaining chair to help clean the formula from Alya's face. It was a strange family, but they were all each other had.

It was a nice moment, until Fettel knocked something else off the counter, startling Jin, and the nice moment was over.


	8. Four Years Later

Four years had passed since the birth of Alma's third child. Alya, now walking and talking, had grown just as any other child who hadn't been born from a corpse would. Straight dark hair reached her shoulders and her vivid blue eyes held much wonder for the world around her. One could say she looked the spitting image of Alma at that age, only minus the frown. Alya always wore a smile under rosy cheeks.

To Fettel's disappointment and Point Man's relief, the young girl hadn't yet exhibited any supernatural gifts beyond her ability to interact with ghosts. She could hold both her brothers' hands whenever she wanted, and yet telekinesis, telepathy, pyrokinesis, and aural manipulation all seemed beyond her. To Fettel's further disappointment, she never expressed any interest in attempting to manifest these abilities, either.

"Will you please try?" Fettel, on a knee in Alya's room, asked in what he considered his most sincere voice. "Try moving this toy with your mind. Can you do it for me?"

"No!" Alya answered with a giggle before dashing past him and out the door as fast as her little legs could take her. Running from his teachings had become one of her favorite games to play, and she always won, either by hiding under the table or hiding behind her eldest brother. This time she went for her brickhouse of a brother.

"Don't let him get me," she exclaimed, immediately grasping the fabric of Point Man's cargo pants and ducking behind him, her laughter still filling the air. Point Man gave Fettel a suspicious look as the latter followed through an adjoining wall.

"You know I don't force anything on her," Fettel defended, and it was true. He never made her do anything she didn't want to. As much as he wanted to see her skills develop, he wouldn't dare give her the kind of childhood Alma had regrettably suffered.

Nevertheless Point Man regarded him with a degree of distrust, if only on principle. Alya spotted her mother watching them from the darkness of the living room corner and scampered over.

"Mama!" Her small arms wrapped around Alma's middle, tiny hands grasping the red dress, and Alya grinned into her mother's side.

Alma, aloof as ever, slowly returned the hug. "My baby," she whispered.

There had never been any skepticism in Alya's acceptance of an eight-year-old ghost girl who very often shed ash into the air as her mother. She knew other people tended to have adults as parents, but this seemed just as normal in her eyes. The same applied to her dead brother and the way he could walk through walls or would occasionally emit a strange red aura. Alya's young mind perceived no real difference between her two siblings, at least in terms of their supposed normalcy.

Even now, when Alma let go and huddled back into her corner, crouching down and shrouding herself in a thick mist of paranormal shadow, Alya thought nothing of it. She skipped back to her brothers.

"Up!" she demanded, holding her arms out. Point Man obeyed, kneeling down to pick her up and lift her onto his shoulders. She let out a squeal of joy as he rose back to his full height.

"Fine," Fettel relented, "no more lessons for today. Instead, how about I help you trounce our dear brother at chess one more time?"

Alya cheered, Point Man sighed, and their afternoon activity was decided. Fettel couldn't hold the pieces, but he could tell Alya where to place them, and despite all of Point Man's efforts to familiarize himself with the strategies, he lost every time. Such was the difference between a soldier and a commander, after all.


	9. Jin Discovers the Ghosts

From where she sat cross-legged upon the ceiling, Alma gazed out the front window, never blinking, never budging. She watched the passing traffic and the critters that played on the lawn. She watched Jin walk up to their front door and ring the doorbell. When Point Man opened the door, Alma craned her neck so she could look down and watch Jin enter. She watched Alya come bounding into the room and embrace Jin. She watched. She always watched.

Fortunately, Jin couldn't see the unnerving way Alma constantly stared at her anytime she visited.

"Aren't you cute today," Jin observed, reaching down to touch the small braid in Alya's hair. "Did your brother finally learn how to do that for you?"

A bright smile accompanied Alya's "mhm!", and Jin gave Point Man a congratulatory glance. He couldn't take credit, however, since it had been Fettel who'd braided Alya's hair. The toddler never differentiated between the two of them. To her, they were both "big brother", and since Jin still had no idea Fettel continued haunting the family, she simply assumed "big brother" always meant Point Man.

Promising to play with her as soon as snacks were made, Jin sent Alya off to set up toys in her room, then headed into the kitchen to cut up some fruit. Once there, a brand new drawing pinned to the refrigerator with a magnet caught her attention.

"Aww," she uttered at the colorful, mishapen stick figure. The comically thick eyebrows and bushy beard meant it could only have been a drawing of Point Man. Jin smiled and began to turn away, but when another drawing on the fridge caught her eye, her face immediately fell. This one depicted a scribbly mess of black crayon and in the center of it stood what looked like a girl in a triangular red dress. Upon closer inspection, some of the black scrawls were actually hair covering the girl's face. A sudden realization made Jin cover her mouth with a hand to stifle her gasp.

Point Man walked by to get a drink and Jin slapped his arm, startling him. "What the hell is this?" she demanded in a harsh whisper, jabbing a finger at the drawing. "Is that Alma? Please, for the love of God, tell me that isn't Alma!"

Point Man froze. He'd forgotten about Alya's newest drawings. Swallowing tentatively, he nodded once, and Jin threw her hands up in bewilderment.

"I thought you took care of her back at Fairport! And now you're telling me she's actually been here this entire time?!" Jin only barely managed to maintain a whisper through her anger. "She almost ended the world, for fuck's sake. She could still be dangerous!"

Point Man shook his head and held up his hands, denying any such probability.

"Oh, really? What, does she just hang out in a corner all day or something?!" She added emphasis by pointing at a random corner of the room, and that corner just happened to be the one Alma currently occupied. Point Man hesitated before shrugging and nodding.

"Oh my God," Jin rubbed her temples, "I can't believe you're defending this. Don't you remember how many people at Armacham were ripped to shreds by her? And this," she now indicated a third drawing on the fridge, one of a stick figure with short dark hair and a black circle on his forehead. "Is that a bullet hole? Is that Fettel? Holy shit, that's Fettel, isn't it?!"

Again, Point Man nodded, the creases of his forehead deepening as Jin's outrage suddenly mixed with horror, and she was no longer capable of whispering.

"You mean he's still here? He's been here? He's a goddamn ghost and you never told me?!"

A deep chuckle filled the silence following her words. Fettel had decided to join, and he now sat comfortably at the kitchen table. "I see she's found us out," he commented, unable to contain his mirth. "What will you do, Brother?"

Point Man shot a glare at him, and Jin noticed the change in his gaze.

"Oh, God. He's here, isn't he?" She pointed at the chair. "Is he there? Right now?"

Point Man regretfully nodded. Jin squinted her eyes at the empty space as if doing so might help her see a ghost, and Fettel quirked a brow at her.

"I can't believe this," Jin groaned. "You've been letting your sister grow up around a homicidal cannibal and the mother of the apocalypse!"

"That's just hurtful," Fettel interjected with poorly feigned distress. "Those small facts shouldn't disqualify us from raising Alya. Isn't that right, Mother?"

Alma's supernatural aura had flared a bit during the conversation. The ash surrounding her began to glow into embers, and Point Man feared she might soon scorch the floor.

Thankfully Alya came hurrying into the room, and Alma relaxed.

"What's taking so long?" Alya sounded almost offended. "I wanna play!"

Jin, forcing herself to calm down, cleared her throat and jerked a thumb at the drawings on the refrigerator. "Um, Alya? Sweetie? Can you tell me who these lovely drawings are of?"

A toothy grin appeared on Alya's face at the chance to show off her work. She approached the fridge and pointed at each drawing. "That's mama, that's littler big brother, and that's bigger big brother!" Alya smiled proudly up at Jin, who attempted to smile back.

"And these two," Jin specified the drawings of Alma and Fettel, "are they... good to you? Are they nice to you?"

"Yeah! Littler big brother is showing me how to read long books. Mama doesn't talk much, kinda like bigger big brother, but she loves me lots!"

Jin searched the girl's expression for any hints of underlying torment, psychological wounds, or cries for help, but Alya seemed like the happiest child she'd ever seen. So, she surrendered, turning her attention back to Point Man with a sigh.

"Okay, fine. Maybe this isn't the worst thing ever. At least, I sure hope it isn't."

Meanwhile Fettel held his hand out for Alya, beckoning her, and she hurried over to climb into his lap.

From Jin's point of view it looked like the little girl now sat upon plain thin air a few inches above the chair. Shaking her head, she turned back to the cutting board and muttered something about weird families.


End file.
